


A Winter Touchstone

by Tzapporah



Series: Gate-Broken Universe [2]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Control, Muteness, Psychological Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-20
Updated: 2014-01-20
Packaged: 2018-01-09 09:38:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1144429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tzapporah/pseuds/Tzapporah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place during the Stargate SG-1 episode "Touchstone."  How would you expect a weather-control device to affect a weather personification?  The answer: Not nicely.</p>
<p>No appearance of SG personnel in this fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Emergency Call

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Fanfiction.net as Part 2 of Gate-Broken Solitudes.

North was tinkering in his workshop when something bumped into the side of his head. He looked up in surprise to see a small biplane made of dreamsand. Well, where there was dreamsand, there was Sandy. North looked around for his diminutive friend, but could not find him. He turned to the small plane and said, "Sandy? What is wrong? Why you not come yourself?"

As if in answer, the little biplane reformed into a large exclamation point with a starburst as its point.

"Trouble? What trouble?"

The exclamation point only moved closer to his face, and he realized that what he had initially thought was a starburst was really a snowflake.

"Jack? Jack is in trouble? Where?" The last he said while hustling out to the globe room.

The dreamsand followed him and settled itself directly over Phoenix, Arizona on the giant globe.

North nodded and hit the button to trigger the Aurora Borealis, as a beautiful beacon used as an emergency call to all of the Guardians. It was the middle of summer and Jack did not do well in the heat. If he was in Arizona, then something was very wrong. He ordered the Yetis to get the sleigh ready as he quickly gathered the necessities for the trip.

Bunny was the first to arrive, "What's up, North?"

"Jack is in trouble," said the Russian.

"What's Frostbite gotten himself into, now?" said Bunny, his sour tone doing a poor job of concealing his concern for the young spirit.

"Don't know, but Sandy is worried, and he's in Arizona…in the summer." Bunny winced at that; he'd seen what had happened to Jack when Pitch had managed to get him temporarily stuck in the desert.

"So what're we waitin' for, mate?"

"Oh! I'm here! I'm here! I came as fast as I could! What's happening?" Tooth said in a rush as she fluttered in through the window.

"Sandy sent for us. It's Frostbite." Said Bunny before North even had a chance to respond.

Tooth's hands flew to her mouth, "Oh! What's wrong with him?"

"Do not know. Only know he is in desert and is summer." Responded the Russian while he headed out the door towards his sleigh. Bunny and Tooth wasted no time in following.

Luckily enough for Bunny, the sleigh had gotten a few overhauls in the past two decades, not the least of which was the addition of a safety harness for the pooka. The ride would still be gut-wrenching and nausea-inducing, but at least he didn't have to focus on staying  _in_  the vehicle as well.

North waited just long enough for Bunny to fasten himself in before throwing the snow globe he'd attuned to Phoenix and launching the reindeer through the portal.


	2. A Marionette's Nightmare

Jack was minding his own business in Chile, giving Santiago a few inches of fresh powder snow, when everything went fuzzy. Sound became muted as if he'd shoved a pillow over his head or stuffed cotton in his ears. His body felt deadened and dull, as if every inch of him had fallen asleep. In fact, the only sense still intact was his vision. He watched with crystal clarity as his arms extended slightly in front of him and shot two blasts of frost. He then watched as the earth rotated beneath him and Santiago receded into the distance as his body, which was no longer under his control, flew rapidly north.

Jack was imprisoned inside his own head. He was in a Plexiglas jail cell where he could see everything, but could do nothing. He spent the entire flight north trying to figure out what was going on. This was like nothing he'd ever experienced before, and the panic was starting to creep in around the edges. He started to desperately search for some kind of crack in the walls of his prison; something he could use to regain control. He almost didn't notice when his body stopped over a city hazed over in a blistering heat.  _It's summer,_ he thought, on the edge of hysteria;  _I can't come here in the summer! I'll boil—._

His thought was cut short by his body once again extending his staff. Clouds began to gather and swirl around him. In less than five minutes, the previously partly-cloudy sky had become packed with massive storm clouds. This time his puppeteer meant business. There were no little experimental gusts this time, oh no. This time they were using him to summon a storm that would make the oft-mentioned blizzard of '68 look like a brief flurry.

_"What are you doing!"_  he screamed from inside his prison,  _"It's summer! There's no way they're prepared for something like that! People are going to die! KIDS are going to die!"_  The young Guardian continued to rail and beat at his mental cage for the better part of an hour. He'd almost given up when a familiar golden figure entered his field of vision. " _Sandy!"_

It was, indeed, the diminutive Guardian of Dreams. Jack figured he'd come to investigate the source of the golf ball-sized hailstones that were now battering the city below. He floated towards Jack with a look of concern and a golden question mark above his head.  _"Sandy! Help me! I'm trapped!"_

The question mark was replaced with an exclamation point as Sandy closed the distance. Jack didn't know exactly what Sandy was seeing, but at least it was clear that something was wrong. Sandy's hand waved in front of Jack's eyes.  _"Yes! Sandy, I'm in here!"_  Unfortunately, the rotund figure couldn't hear him. The little man's worried face took up all of Jack's field of vision for a moment, searching Jack's eyes. Jack's heart fell when Sandy backed away, clearly frightened by what he'd seen.  _What did he see? Or worse…what_ didn't  _he see?_  Jack's vision became a wash of gold as Sandy blasted dreamsand into his face.  _That might work!_  Jack's optimism was dashed less than a later, however. His marionette body hadn't responded one bit, and Jack saw and felt absolutely zero effects inside of his prison. Whatever this was, it was immune to dreamsand.

Sandy was as disheartened as he; Jack watched as he formed a small biplane out of his dreamsand and sent it northward. He was calling in the cavalry.


	3. Reprieve

The Guardians instantly knew why Sandy had sent for them when they found the sleigh being violently battered in the middle of a massive hailstorm as soon as they emerged from North's Portal.

"Bloody hell! What could've got up Frostbite's nose this badly?"

North could only shake his head in confusion while Tooth's eyes widened with sympathetic worry for the young spirit. "I do not know, but we need to find him."

"Oh yeah, mate, that's just brilliant. How are we supposed to do that?" came the sarcastic reply.

Bunny's rhetorical question was answered when a vine of dreamsand came into view, serving as a clear course to follow for the buffeted sleigh and its passengers. The path was rough, but they did eventually reach their destination.

They found Jack simply hovering at the eye of the storm with his back to them. He was simply floating, body completely relaxed, hands out and the one holding his staff slightly extended. Not one thing about his body language denoted that anything was wrong, but  _something_  was off about it. Sandy came into view as they rounded the Winter Spirit; directly in front of Jack with terrified and worried expression on his face. Half a second later, the rest of the Guardians could see why.

They had been prepared for Jack to be depressed. They had been prepared for him to be sad. They had been prepared for him to be injured. They had even been prepared for him to be in a towering rage. What they hadn't been prepared for was…nothing. Jack's face was completely blank; his usually mobile face as expressionless as a Japanese  _No_  mask. His eyes were open and completely empty as well. His already pale complexion only added to the macabre impression of a hanging corpse.

A golden dusting of dreamsand on the boy's face compounded the disturbing nature of the image. Dreamsand, probably one of the most powerful substances in the world, had had absolutely zero effect. Jack being unaffected by the dreamsand meant that he was in the thrall of something extremely powerful, and, judging by the massive storm around them, not friendly.

* * *

Jack felt a trickle of relief as saw the other Guardians arrive around the periphery of his field of vision. Maybe the others would have something up their sleeves.

"Frostbite!" Bunny's voice was muted as it was filtered through Jack's dulled senses. "What d'ya think you're doin'?"

_"It's not like I'm doing this on_ purpose _!"_  Jack railed. How could Bunny possibly think that he was like that? Being sore about that bloody blizzard was one thing, but that was just cruel! He threw all of his willpower and indignation against the walls of his prison. He had to tell them that it wasn't really him. He had to  _tell_  them!

He was caught completely unawares when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He gave a shuddering gasp in surprise, doubled over and began to gulp in massive lungfuls of air. It took a few seconds for Jack's tired and frightened mind to realize that this was happening in the real world and he was gasping the air into his own body.

The storm below was quickly blowing itself out and he could hear Tooth calling his name, but when he looked up, it was into the eyes of Sandy. He desperately put his hands on the shoulders of the small Guardian. He  _had_  to explain.  _Had_  to make him understand.

* * *

Jack's abrupt gasp and doubling over caught everyone by surprise. After a few shuddering breaths, he raised his head. His eyes weren't blank now; they were wide, filled with terror and desperation. He reached out to clutch the small man's shoulders and was barely coherent as he pleadingly stammered out, "I…I…couldn't stop. I could…I could see…I could see myself doing it…but I just couldn't…I couldn't stop...oh god." His head fell and his arms crossed to clutch his own chest. He seemed to shrink in on himself as he curled around his staff in a fetal position. "…had no control…could only watch…had to watch…" His voice died down to a mumble and his eyes were now squeezed tightly closed.

Tooth shot forward past the stunned Sandy to snatch the tight ball he'd become out of the air. "Oh Jack…it's not your fault!" She might couldn't be sure of exactly what was going on, but she had absolutely no doubts on that fact. "Everything'll be OK…it's not your fault." She murmured soothingly to him as she carried him back to the sleigh.

* * *

Jack continued to clutch at his body, still horrified by whatever that  _thing_  had made him do. It had scared him more than anything in his life; he doubted even Pitch could come up with something that cruel. It had come and gone with absolutely no warning, and Jack was scared to death it might happen again. He had an irrational idea that if he held onto himself tightly enough, whatever it was wouldn't be able to snatch it away from him again.

He was dimly aware of Tooth's arms around him, but he hungrily drank in her words. Her voice was a balm to his psyche, which was why it was all the more frightening when he felt the prison walls slam down around him yet again.

* * *

Tooth felt a flood of relief when she felt the body of the traumatized boy begin to relax and unfold halfway back to the sleigh. Her relief was short-lived, however, when he turned and she saw that his face had returned to its blank state. "Jack?" she tentatively asked, not really expecting a response. He did not even acknowledge her existence as he rotated and suddenly shot off westward.

Tooth exchanged a quick, frightened, look with the other Guardians. She and Sandy darted into the sleigh and North, for his part, wasted no time in setting his sleigh off after the wayward Winter Spirit.


	4. Trapped and Hiding

During the westward trip, Sandy filled the other Guardians in on what he'd seen and been able to figure out before they had arrived. The most difficult part for him to articulate was his belief that Jack was trapped inside of his own mind. It was only through the extra understanding of the psyche he had as the Guardian of Dreams that he was remotely able to understand.

"So you saw the storm, went to investigate, and found him like that?" asked Tooth, making sure she was interpreting Sandy's pictograms correctly.

The little man nodded and pondered how he could explain what he'd figured out.

"But what could make Frostbite do that? His face was completely blank, like he wadn't even there." Mused Bunny, "And then after, 'e was saying something about having to watch. What the bloody 'ell was 'e talkin' about?"

Aha! The furball had given Sandy exactly the opening he needed. Above his head, a miniature Jack formed out of dreamsand. When he was sure he had their attention, a cage slammed down around the small figure, which briefly flew around in a panic before beginning to struggle at the bars, silently screaming.

"Whad'ya mean he's trapped? He was right there in front of us." Came Bunny's confused reply.

Sandy shook his head in frustration, and then formed a second image of Jack, this time just his head, but the same size as the trapped miniature. He then put the cage inside the larger image.

The other Guardians blinked owlishly at him for a moment before Tooth burst out, "You mean he's trapped inside his own head?"

Sandy nodded.

"And he's scared and trying to get out?"

Sandy nodded again. She was grasping this more quickly than he'd expected.

"We have to find him and help him! He's already so sensitive about what his snow does sometimes, and there's no way there weren't any injuries from that hailstorm he made back there. Oh!" Her hands flew to her mouth in realization, "He said he had to watch it all. Oh, it must be tearing him up inside!"

"We must find him, quick as possible." rumbled North from the front of the sleigh. The other three nodded grimly and looked ahead, each trying to figure out some way they could possibly aid their young friend.

It took a few hours for the Guardians to catch up to and locate their youngest member. They found him hovering over Palm Springs, California in the exact same position as they'd found him in Phoenix, lording overtop of a storm cloud unleashing a blizzard on the unfortunate city below. Approaching from above, they brought the sleigh cautiously in behind of the Winter Spirit.

North cautiously reached over with one of his large hands to grasp the Winter Spirit's soldier. Unsurprisingly, there was no response from the boy. After a few seconds, the other Guardians noticed his hand start to quiver and the muscles on his arm tense with strain. The big man was actually trying to physically turn the boy around! And he was failing! The giant Russian strained against the immovable object of the spindly teenager for several minutes before letting go and shaking his arm out. "I pull any harder, will probably start breaking bones. As is, he will have bad bruise when is over."

While North was executing his idea, Sandy had repositioned himself to once again look into the boy's seemingly-empty gaze. His worried frown deepened at what he saw. He used a small dreamsand whip to attract the attention of the other Guardians.

"What is it, Sandy?"

The golden man cast an uncertain glance at the still-immobile boy before reforming the Jack-in-a-cage image he'd used earlier. This time, however, the Jack wasn't beating on the bars or screaming. This time, the miniature Jack was hugging his legs to his chest in a fetal position in a corner of the cave, gently rocking back and forth.

"'E's not even fighting anymore?" asked Bunnymund incredulously, "I've never seen Frostbite give up like that b'fore."

"Oh! He must be in incredible pain!" lamented Tooth.

"I was gonna try knocking 'im out," suggested Bunnymund, spinning his boomerang and ignoring Tooth's angry frown, "but I don't think it'll do any good with Frostbite already effectively lights-out."

"We can try blocking him the next time he flies off. We know to be on the lookout for it this time." Suggested Tooth.

North exchanged glances with Bunny and Sandy. "Is best option right now. Tooth, you would be only one fast enough; the rest of us will try to help hold from behind."

Tooth nodded. The only thing left to do now was wait.

It was a half an hour before Jack cut off the flow of snow from his staff. There was no gasp this time, however. His head and arms just drooped limply for a second, and then came right back up in blank-face mode again.

Tooth was poised to intercept the young Guardian as soon as he moved. This time he turned back towards the East. Before he could fly off, Tooth positioned herself in front of him and braced her hands against his shoulders in an attempt to keep him in place. Meanwhile, Sandy wrapped dreamsand tendrils around his middle and North and Bunnymund each took an arm. Their efforts turned out to be for naught, however, as he simply moved forward with no acknowledgement that his movement was even impeded. They couldn't even able to slow him down, and he was accelerating rapidly. The three Guardians behind found they could not maintain their grasps on the boy, and Tooth found herself with a choice. She could either let go of him and get into the sleigh with North to follow like before, or she could hold onto Jack wherever he was heading and have more time to something before the others arrived.

It was an easy decision, she folded her wings and shifted her grip on Jack and allowed him to carry them wherever they were going.

Even at the breakneck speeds they'd been travelling, it still took over an hour before he came to an abrupt halt somewhere over New Mexico. Tooth was dislodged by the change in momentum and tumbled a little bit in surprise before she recovered and was hovering under her own power. She then got to be the first Guardian to see Jack start one of his freak storms.

His head was cocked to the side for a few minutes, as if he were listening to instructions. His body then went into the pose that the other Guardians had found him in at the two previous locations and hailstones started spewing out of the end of his staff.

The next half hour consisted of Tooth trying everything she could to get Jack to snap out of it. She tugged his arms. She tried to pry his staff out of his hand. She even slapped him across his face. Everything she tried proved fruitless. In the end, she just decided to give what little comfort she could and held him in a tight hug from behind while she waited for the others.

As it turned out, she didn't have to wait for them. Less than fifteen minutes later, Jack went limp like he had in California. He was like a marionette with its strings cut; his staff slipped out of his hand and it was only Tooth's quick reflexes that allowed her to catch it with her feet. Tooth gently lowered him onto the top of the nearest building. His breathing was even but ragged, like that of someone sleeping with respiratory infection. His eyes were closed and his brows slightly drawn together, as if troubled by something. His limbs, now free of gravity's pull, began to slowly fold inward; his knees lifting towards his chest in an echo of the fetal position Sandy had shown them of the inner-Jack in his prison. His movements were at the same time agonizingly slow and frighteningly fast. In five minutes, which felt like an hour to Tooth, he had completely shrunk in on himself, knees hugged to his gently rising chest.

"Oh, Jack…" she said, completely at a loss of how to help the young spirit. She didn't know what worried her more: Jack being in such a fragile state or that he'd break out of it only to return to the blank thrall he'd been in before. All she could do was stay with him and stroke his hair as she made soothing noises. She held the small block of dreamsand that Sandy had given her as a beacon tightly to her chest and awaited the arrival of the other Guardians.


	5. Explanations and Recriminations

It was another half hour before the other Guardians arrived in North's sleigh; there had been absolutely no change in Jack.

"How long has he been like this?" asked North.

"A half an hour," Tooth replied mournfully, "I've been talking to him, but it's like he's trying to shut out the world."

"We need to get him back to Pole. If nothing else, Yetis can keep him in building." North said, pulling out his snow globe.

Tooth nodded as she carried the surprisingly-light Winter Child to the sleigh, attentive for any indication that Jack might shoot off on his own again. The young spirit, however, did not move or react the entire way to the bed in the infirmary of Santoff Clausen.

The four Guardians looked at the boy, still curled into his fetal ball and eyes clenched shut, lying in the bed. They weren't completely sure what to do or expect. Was he going to snap out of it? Was he going to fly off in a haze again? Was something else entirely going to happen?

North opted to plan for the worst and ordered the Yetis to gently strap Jack down to the bed. Bunny took Jack's staff and hid it in the Warrens for good measure. Sandy had inspected him and informed the other Guardians that Jack had retreated deep into his own mind and there was nothing he could currently do about it in the state Jack was in.

An entire day passed and there had been no change in the Winter Spirit. The Guardians wracked their brains for what they could possibly do. It was Bunnymund who had the final brainstorm. "'Ay, wait a minute. Didn't they 'ave torrential rains in Nevada while we were chasing Frostbite around?" he asked North.

"Aye, but what does that have to do with—Hyas!" North had clearly come to the same conclusion as the Pooka.

"Exactly. I'd bet an 'ole batch o' eggs on 'im being affected like Frostbite. 'E's also a few thousand years older than any of us. 'E might just 'ave an idea." His accent became more pronounced as his enthusiasm about the idea grew.

"To Globe Room! We find him! Sandy will watch Jack." The small Guardian nodded in acknowledgement of the last statement as the large Russian and Kangaroo-rabbit rushed out of the door of the infirmary.

* * *

Finding the ancient Rain Spirit did not prove difficult; it was monsoon season in Asia, after all. His monumentally foul mood, however, almost made them regret their decision.

"And what the hell do  _you two_  want?" grumbled the surly spirit.

"Um…well…we kinda noticed a bit of a downpour in Nevada yesterday…" began Bunny.

The golden-bearded spirit visibly winced, but defensively stated. "So what? Rainstorms in the desert are always sudden and strong. Besides, since when were you two the weather police?"

Bunny pressed on, "Bloody 'ell. I'll come right out and say it. Were you in control of your actions yesterday, or was somethin' makin' ya do it?"

Hyas visibly stiffened and his eyes looked at them suspiciously, "Why do you ask?"

"Is Jack, Jack Frost. Something decided to use him as its little puppet yesterday. Blizzard and hailstorms along southern U.S.. Now he at Pole in very bad shape."

"What? It—it hit one so young?  _Damn bloody furballs!_ " exclaimed the rain spirit in obvious fury.

"Uh, what was that, mate?" Asked Bunnymund dangerously, suspicious of a possible slur on his extinct people.

Hyas, oblivious the pooka and running his hands through his thick hair, continued his tirade. "I  _knew_  that bloody thing was going to cause misery. I  _told_  them. Did the haughty little bastards listen?  _NO!_  I mean, what do I know? I'm just a rain spirit; one of the very things they were trying to make that thing control. The Gods, and now the Moon make us this way for a  _reason_! It took some idiot causing the entire damned  _Sinai_  to flood convince them. That damned thing was supposed to be gone for good!"

Seemingly finished with his stream-of-consciousness narrative, he drew a deep and steadying breath and turned to the two stunned-looking Guardians. "I apologize for my outburst. What caused the young Frost to behave as he did is a device designed millennia ago to control the weather. The weather of our world is, as you know, controlled by animate and sentient beings. The designers did not know this, and designed their device accordingly. There were…bad reactions, to put it mildly. Eventually, another group of people removed it from our world." He held up his hand to forestall the obvious question. "No, I will not tell you how, even if I knew all of the details. That is information from an era long-past; one that should stay buried. Suffice to say, it was taken from our world."

"Then how did it hit you and Frostbite yesterday?" was Bunnymund's indignant question.

The Grecian looked a bit bemused, "I…I sensed its return the night before last, although it had been so long that I didn't recognize it immediately. I'm ashamed to say that it took me feeling its grip to realize exactly what I was sensing. Someone had it somewhere in Utah and was inexpertly fiddling with it. That's what made both the Winter Spirit and I cause such unseasonal mayhem."

North was aghast, "You say is back here? Is there way to stop or get rid of it? Jack is bad off as is, being puppet again…would be very bad. I feel it deep in my belly." He solemnly patted the paunch in question.

Hyas shook his head. "No, it disappeared again by mid-afternoon yesterday. I…went to investigate where it had been and I'm…confident it will not be back here for a very, very long time." He was clearly choosing his words carefully, not wanting to give the two Guardians more information than he felt necessary. "As for the young Guardian, what is his condition?"

"Frostbite's been curled up in a ball since yesterday. Sandy says 'e buried 'imself in 'is own 'ead." Bunny paused before continuing quietly, unsure of how to say the next words. "We…looked into what 'e'd been made to do. There were over a hundred ice- and snow-related deaths in California, alone; most were before the snow and 'ail actually started." He left the rest to the imagination of the ancient man.

"I see." Hyas's golden eyes gained a haunted, faraway look. "When you are held by the device…it is like being put inside of a transparent prison. Sound is muffled and feeling is limited, but…you can see everything completely perfectly. Absolutely everything; but can do absolutely nothing. No doubt he saw all of, and heard many of, those things his body did. He's a gentle and sensitive soul, yes?"

The two Guardians nodded in agreement, Bunny too horrified by what he was hearing to lapse into his usual snarkiness about the young Guardian.

Hyas smiled gently. "Can you really blame him for trying to cut himself off from all of that? The only advice I can give you is this: he just went through hell. Sandy may be able to help coax him back out, but this is going to haunt him for a long time. Don't push him; let him process and deal with what happened on his own terms. It will be excruciatingly-slow going for a while, but he  _will_ recover; make sure he knows you know that."

The two Guardians thanked the ancient Spirit of Seasonal Rains and left in North's sleigh; both quiet and lost in their own thoughts.

* * *

While North and Bunnymund had been gone, Sandy had made some strides in making Jack more comfortable. The boy had relaxed some out of his tight ball; his facial features slowly smoothing to the peacefulness of sleep. The little man turned, manifesting a question mark above his head as he did so, to two returning Guardians.

North seemed unsure how to answer, so Bunnymund took it upon himself to share the most immediately important information. "Hyas says that the thing that got Frostbite's gone and won't be comin' back." To illustrate his point, he began to undo the fastening on the bed's straps. "'E wouldn't tell us  _what_  it was, exactly or 'ow he knew, but 'e was sure."

North had managed to gather his thoughts by that point and continued, "Is as we thought, Jack saw and heard everything it made him do. He says Jack will get better, but to give him time. It will not be easy…on all of us."

Sandy nodded, knowing that there must have been more to the conversation, but satisfied that he had the important details. They could take time later to cogitate on whatever they'd gleaned. Right now it was time to focus on the recovery of their youngest member.

 


	6. Aftermath

Jack slept for three more days, his body exhausted from the power the external force had caused him to release, his mind slowly being coaxed from its dark corner by the efforts of the Guardian of Dreams. The first day was a rough one for the Guardians; the boy had lain as still as a corpse, with only the barest movement of his chest and a slight furrowing of his brow giving any indication of life. The second day brought movement to the facial muscles, odd twitches of emotions playing tag across the pale boy's face. On the third day, his body followed suit, and he would occasionally toss, turn, and emit muted whimpers in his slumber. According to Sandy, they would not have much longer before he regained consciousness, but he could and would not speculate on Jack's mental state at that point.

Tooth was in attendance in the late morning of the fourth day when he silently opened his eyes. She was in the middle of semi-frantically pacing at the time, muttering to herself, and did not immediately notice the change. "Oh! He said it would be today! Today's almost gone! I'm going to have to get back to my teeth before long. Oh—! "The rest of her musings were cut short when her glance caught sight of those ice-blue eyes, and she let out a happy shriek. "Jack! You're back!" she cried, half-flying, half-running over to the recumbent teen to bury him in a bear hug.

Jack was stiff under her arms, making no move to reciprocate the show of affection. Tooth, not in her most observant state at the moment, took a full minute to realize this fact. She pulled back to inspect the boy's face; what she saw had an immediate and drastic sobering effect on her ebullience.

A large part of Jack's lifespan…or after-deathspan as the case may be…had been spent alone, and as such he'd had a lot of experience hiding his true emotions from both himself and casual observers. After twenty years of association, however, Tooth was no longer a casual observer; his carefully-schooled neutral expression did not fool her for a single second. Badly-concealed sadness, shame and guilt were plastered across his face, and his gaze was fixed to on a spot in the back of the room. "Oh, Jack…" she murmured, "It wasn't your fault."

His eyes shifted to the ground at their feet and slowly rose up the Fairy's body, stopping at shoulder-level, as if he couldn't bring himself to look her in the face. His mouth twitched, opening and closing a few times until it his jaw set, ready for him to speak, "…—"

They were interrupted by the sound of the other Guardians crashing through the infirmary door. "Jack!" "Frosbite!" *smile and exclamation point*

Jack's mouth snapped shut with an audible click and his gaze immediately shifted to the floor at the opposite end of the room from the newly-arrived Guardians. Tooth shot a glare at the three so sharp it stopped them in their tracks, continued words of exuberance dying on their lips.

She leaned in, "Jack…what were you about to say?" With no answer, she continued to gently press him under the observation of the silent male Guardians. The only response she received was the occasional small shake of the boy's head.

"Tooth," Bunny said, gently, deciding that it was time someone spoke up. "Give 'im some space and let 'im go."

Tooth blinked back at the pooka and released Jack from the grip she had on his shoulders. She hadn't even realized the awkward, twisted position she'd been holding him in. His legs were still under the blanket on the hospital bed. His upper torso was upright and half-lifted out of the bed by Tooth's over-enthusiastic grip. All of that coupled with the fact that he'd turned his head away from the rest of them left him in what must've been a very uncomfortable position. If the boy hadn't been so naturally flexible, he would've probably strained a muscle by now. She released his shoulders as if she'd been burned.

When released, Jack's body settled in a sitting position on the bed. He'd turned his head back around and was now staring fixedly at his feet for a full minute before the next attempt at engagement.

"'Ey, Frostbite…y' still with us?" Bunny tentatively ribbed him. Jack did not even acknowledge he'd said anything, so he waved his paw in front of the boy's eyes. "'Allo, Earth to Jack…" Jack's brows twitched together momentarily at Bunnymund's use of his actual name, but gave no other reaction to the pooka's attempts to engage him. Frustrated, the Australian bent down and stuck his face directly into Jack's line-of-sight. "Oi! I don't like bein' ignored!" The boy's gaze dropped like it had with Tooth earlier and displayed a look of such deep pain and shame that it effectively quelled the irascible Guardian.

The four standing Guardians exchanged a look and quietly moved to the side to discuss.

"He blames himself for what happened," began Tooth, "and I don't know whether I'd made any progress convincing him otherwise when you three came in. He'd been about to say something, I think, but now he's just sort of shut down."

"Aye. It's a little scary to see 'im like this;" admitted Bunny, "I know Frostbite's no stranger to pain, but 'e always covers it with one o' 'is smiles."

"Jack is strong. He will make it through this. Hyas said we must no push and let him do it in his own time. That is what we will do." North's words were full of conviction, but the others couldn't help but notice the slight note of trepidation in his voice.

Sandy, who'd been contemplative during this exchange, began to form images above his head. The first was of Jack sitting in the bed with his body curled up defensively, with the other four guardians nearby and reaching out to him. The sand-Jack only shook his head and curled tighter. Then the sand-Tooth slowly came forward while the other three backed away. She sat by the cowering boy and soothingly stroked his form. After a few seconds, she was reprieved by sand-Bunny, who simply sat with the boy, occasionally patting his back. Sand-Bunny was replaced with sand-Sandy, and then he was subsequently replaced with sand-North, and the cycle repeated. Throughout, the sand-Jack unfolded and relaxed, began to look at and silently converse with the sand-Guardians, hugging each of them in turn until he eventually came into a group-hug with all of them.

"Sandy is right," said North, the most used to interpreting the Sandman's images and ignoring Bunnymund's sour look at the concept of a group hug, "All of us is too much for Jack right now. We must take turns like before so he feels less pressure. He _will_  come back to us."

The last was said with no trepidation at all.

* * *

A week had passed since Jack had awoken from his ordeal, and little had changed in the Winter Spirit's demeanor. The other Guardians stuck to their shifts to never leave him alone, but the boy only ever acknowledged their presence by pointedly looking anywhere but at them. When Phil the yeti brought his food, the rail-thin teen would eat lightly and mechanically under the worried furball's watchful eye. It was during these times that the other four Guardians would have their now-daily how-is-Jack-doing meeting.

"I'm beginnin' ta think that Hyas 'ad no idea what 'e was talkin' about." Groused Bunnymund.

"Yes, is definitely not what we were hoping, but he had big trauma, yes? Is not easy thing to recover from." North said, attempting to soothe the volatile pooka.

"I don't know what else we can do," Toothiana said, flitting agitatedly back and forth, "Sandy, can you tell if we're getting through to him at all? Is he getting better and we just can't see it?"

The diminutive Guardian found himself the immediate center of attention, and fought down a stab of irritation at the Man in the Moon for not giving him a voice. The realm of the mind was an incredibly complicated place and pictograms could only go so far. He nodded slowly as he pondered the best way to impart what he knew to the others. A partial-Jack formed slowly, a macabre figure consisting only of an arm, a quarter-torso, and a half-head. The other Guardians watched, mesmerized, as the image slowly dragged itself to another small block of dreamsand, picked it up with its one arm, and fit it onto the one of the missing sides of his torso. It then repeated the process with an additional block, this time fitting it into his head.

After the third iteration, Bunny was the first to find his voice. "So…yer sayin' that Frostbite's in pieces and right now 'e's puttin' 'imself back together?"

Sandy nodded, giving the pooka an encouraging look to go on, but it was North that picked up the narrative.

"And, is going slow because he only has small amount together yet, da?"

Another nod and Tooth nearly choked on her sympathetic sobs to finish.

"And he has to do it on his own, right? There's nothing we can do at this point to help? But the more progress he makes, the faster he'll get, right?" She was really showing the hummingbird side of her personality now; the final sentence was almost too fast to understand as her voice rose in a plea for hope.

Sandy quickly floated up to the agitated fairy and grabbed her by the shoulders to look her in the eyes. When he knew he had her attention, he gave a firm nod.

"Good, then we give him more time. You let us know if you see anything we can do, da? Good. We will be there for him." North's affirmation effectively ended the discussion.

* * *

It was almost a month before the Guardians saw tangible evidence of real progress. Each had taken to passing the time in a different way during their vigil over the silent Jack. North moved his ice toy prototype equipment into the room, enabling him to complete the time-consuming work as well as have a potential rehab tool available for whenever Jack did recover. Sandy sculpted large and intricate dreamscapes while surreptitiously working his particular brand of magic on the recovering boy's psyche. Toothiana put her delicate and nimble hands to use and taught herself how to knit lace, the intricate designs appearing as if by magic from her flying needles. If the designs were winter- and ice-themed more often than not, then who would complain? Bunnymund decided to catch up on his reading. Before he'd become a Guardian, he'd been very well-educated, although he'd usually avoided this particular pastime around others because he felt rather silly-looking in his reading glasses.

It was during Bunny's shift that it happened. The Australian's warrior instincts led him to believe that the boy had been sneaking glances at his bespectacled face over the last few days. Today, he was more than certain and had, in fact, caught the boy out of the corner of his eye. Something, he didn't know what exactly, told him that now was the right time for a little nudge. Following that instinct, Bunny snapped his book shut, causing the boy to jump and quickly look back away.

"I'm gonna go hit the loo. Bein' alone for a few minutes won't make much of a difference to ya, will it, Frostbite?" He made to stand up and walk away, and even though he'd been hoping for  _something_  he barely managed to stop himself jumping high enough to hit the ceiling when Jack's hand shot out to grab his wrist in a death-grip. Bunny shot a quick glance at the thin white-knuckled hand clamped around his dark fur and followed the arm up to the owner of that hand. A pair of wide, pleading blue eyes met his and he felt a smile start to tug at the side of his mouth. "Hey now, that's more like it, Frostbite."

He half expected Jack to look away again in response, but was even more gratified to see a small twitch at the corner of the boy's mouth instead. "Don't worry, kid, I ain't gonna go anywhere…but think you could let me 'ave my paw back? I 'ear circulation's a good thing in a body." The boy quickly dropped the limb and the small twitch became a sheepish half-smile.

Three hours later, Toothiana flitted into the room and found herself hitting the ground as her entire body froze in surprise at what she saw. The two youngest Guardians had taken the stool from North's craftbench and were kneeling on either side of it…armwrestling.

"'Ow the 'ell are you 'olding me back so well with those skinny little toothpicks?" Bunny was demanding of the boy.

Jack only grinned back in response as his arm firmly held its position against the pooka's furred limb. Both were oblivious to the arrival of the colorful Tooth Fairy. She felt her heart tighten in her chest when she saw that grin, so like the Jack of old, that the fact that he was looking directly into Bunny's face as he did so was almost secondary.

Baby Tooth flitted in right behind her and also froze momentarily in midair. She, however, took one look at the grin on the boy's face and barreled into his cheek head-first. The impact broke whatever method of concentration Jack was using in his match against Bunny, who let out a bark of victory as he slammed the boy's arm to one side as Jack toppled the other way in surprise at the impact.

"Oi! Frostbite, you OK, there? What 'appened?...Oh." He'd finally notice the presence of the two fairies. "'Ey Tooth, time for a shift-change already?"

Tooth finally found her voice again. "He's…he's…and you…" She stopped and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Bunny," she said in a dangerously-sweet tone, "could I talk to you for a minute?"

The pooka threw a look at the currently-occupied Winter Spirit and nodded. Rising to his feet, he padded over to the small fairy. "What's up?" He said, feigning ignorance.

"What do you think!? When did  _that_  happen?" She said, gesturing towards the animated, lopsided, and surprisingly quiet wrestling match occurring on the floor.

"Um…a few hours or so?" Bunny said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "'e didn't want me to leave, and I thought yellin' for someone'd do more 'arm than good." He added, forestalling the irate Fairy's followup question.

Mollified, the Fairy relaxed her aggressive posture. "Has he said anything?"

The pooka's brows knitted together in clear concern, "Not a peep, 'e didn't even cry out in surprise when Baby Tooth 'it 'im."

"Well…at least he's on the mend…"

"Yeah, I'm a lot less inclined to find Hyas again and smack 'im around a bit."

Tooth only smiled in response as they both turned to watch the happy pair on the floor.

* * *

It was a full two months before the other Guardians returned Jack's staff to him and let him leave Santoff Clausen. The boy had been up and about, almost back to his old self for two weeks at that point, and the final week was full of pleading looks and slick floors. It had been a number of years since Jack had had to deal with the overprotectiveness of the older Guardians and he'd forgotten just how annoying it could be. He had not been made to stay cooped up for extended periods of time, and he'd needed to get  _out_. His oldest friend was waiting for him.

Almost immediately after he'd set foot outside of building with his staff in hand, the wind picked him up and swirled him around in silent and happy greeting. Grinning widely and laughing silently, Jack let the wind have its way with him, allowing the random tumble to wash his cares away.

The primary reason the other Guardians had been so protective was because Jack hadn't uttered a single syllable since his ordeal. It wasn't that he hadn't tried; in fact he'd had a few false starts like the one with Toothiana right after he'd regained consciousness, but to no avail. As far as the others could tell, there was nothing  _physically_  wrong with his throat or vocal cords, but for some reason, he couldn't seem to remember how to use them. It was like an empty space in both his conscious and subconscious. As far as he could gather from Sandy, it was a piece of himself he'd as yet been unable to collect. He didn't really understand much of that existential stuff that was Sandy's bailiwick, but he trusted the small Guardian's judgment, and the small man kept affirming over and over again that it'd just be a matter of time.

As he was wont to do, Jack idly wondered what his and Sandy's conversations looked like; two equally-silent beings, one communicating with gestures and facial expressions, the other in golden pictograms.  _Hmm…I'm going to have to figure out a more efficient way for me to communicate, but for now…it's time for a snow day in Buenos Aires._

The teen zoomed south, twirling like a snowflake in the wind.


End file.
